Overview

Roots of Defeat is the candid memoir of Michael J. Frankwicz (1935-2001), a U.S. Army captain who came of age in the early years of the Vietnam War. Serving from 1955 to 1963, Frankwicz was among the young American officers on the ground before the conflict became the nation-defining war it is remembered as today. With a soldier's eye for detail and a historian's curiosity, Frankwicz recounts his training, deployment, and experiences in Vietnam's Central Highlands. He witnessed firsthand the fragile alliances, cultural misunderstandings, and political missteps that would later escalate into full-scale war. His reflections reveal not only what he saw as a young captain but also what he came to understand decades later about how and why America's strategy unraveled. Part military history, part personal reflection, Roots of Defeat captures the human dimension of a conflict too often told only in statistics and headlines. Frankwicz writes with unflinching honesty about the challenges of command, the disillusionment of watching flawed policies unfold, and the lasting questions that haunted a generation of veterans. After returning home, Frankwicz continued to study Southeast Asia, revisiting his experiences and drawing connections between the war he fought and the larger forces that shaped it. His work-completed before his passing in 2001-offers a unique perspective: not only of the battles on the ground, but of the deeper currents of history, politics, and human cost that defined America's involvement in Vietnam. For decades, his manuscript sat unpublished in a three-ring binder, with a floppy disk tucked into the pocket inside. On Veterans Day 2024, his daughter Rebecca J. Frankwicz opened the binder and realized what she held was far more than a war story-it was her father's voice, wrestling with betrayal, resilience, and the cost of standing up for what's right even when powerful systems demanded silence. Determined to honor him-and all Vietnam veterans-she devoted over a year to editing and design work to bring Roots of Defeat to life. This powerful memoir weaves together Captain Frankwicz's personal letters from Vietnam with his later reflections as a veteran who came home both scarred and searching for truth. The result is not only the memoir of a soldier, but the story of a father, a man of faith, and a human being who never stopped caring for others-even as he carried the hidden weight of war. Roots of Defeat offers an intimate window into the heart of one soldier who not only lived through the Vietnam War but questioned it while it was happening-and refused to let it be forgotten.

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